Last weekend’s Cambrian Rally saw the opening round of the British Rally Championship, BTRDA, and Pirelli Welsh championships.

130 cars lined up in Llandudno for a tough day in the forests of Clocaenog, Gwydir, Elsi and Crafnant. The British Championship National A runners tackled ten stages with the final three in darkness, whereas the BTRDA and Welsh, National B competitors did seven tests.

Steve Black, with his Ross -on-Wye based co-driver, Paul Morris, followed up their excellent class win on the Riponian Stages last weekend, with a fine 3rd in the 1400 class and 21st overall, after a fairly trouble free day, in the SBG Suzuki Swift.

Paul said: “We had a fairly uneventful day, we had a big moment in Gwydir but apart from that, the car ran faultlessly, some of the stages were a bit soft, and starting to cut up, but we can look forward to the next BTRDA round now in a couple of weeks time.”

Coleford’s Colin Jenkins teamed up again with former driver, Simon Pickering, and the duo were using the event for a test ahead of full British Historic championship campaign, in the mk1 Escort, and had a trouble free run to 49th overall and 5th in class H2.

Ross based, Tim Phelps, with regular co-driver, Elwyn Manuel, in his 2.4 litre Escort, finished 41st overall and 4th in class B12.

Sadly, Tim’s brother, Geoff, with Pete Wilson on the notes, retired their two litre Escort RS on stage four, with mechanical issues.

Veteran campaigners, Brian Bell and Paul Spooner, were using a Fiesta R5 for the first time but slid off the road in stage 2, and retired.

Former Scottish champions, Euan Thorburn and Paul Beaton, took overall victory in their new Ford Focus WRC, in the National B event.